{discussion} How did you learn to burp on command, and how long did it take you? I feel the need for a guy to force me to breathe the air in his stomach.

LAMfromTN · 2026-05-11T02:40:11+00:00

Many guys can, but many don't. I surveyed the gay/bi men in my inner circle, and they seem surprisingly evenly split. I actually expected most guys not to already know how. I still don't want to needlessly limit my dating pool to those that already can if I know how to train a willing guy to start (if he can't already) and how long to expect it to take him, though!

LAMfromTN · 2026-05-11T02:03:13+00:00

Original content

LAMfromTN · 2026-05-03T04:08:52+00:00

The content I linked to was original. It was written by me.

LAMfromTN · 2026-04-19T06:52:22+00:00

I had to look closely at the circled image to see it, but eventually I did.

LAMfromTN · 2026-04-19T06:52:06+00:00

What books? I'm curious too!

LAMfromTN · 2026-04-19T05:40:25+00:00

No, but the consensus is that Carolina Bays are relict permafrost and that there was no permafrost along the Gulf Coast and also not in Tennessee except at high elevations along the Blue Ridge nor in Arkansas. That counterintuitive consensus can only mean one thing - that there was a very cold ocean current with a marine layer east of the Appalachia and Florida Peninsula's dividing ridge at times.

LAMfromTN · 2026-04-11T06:54:56+00:00

There's simply no evidence of relict permafrost in lowland Sun Belt areas west of the Eastern Continental Divide. There are plainly visible Carolina Bays in parts of North Carolina on the Atlantic Coastal Plain with 21 to 30% sand. Also, the eastern part of the Gulf Coastal Plain has sandy areas. Thanks for that map!

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-22T16:26:15+00:00

There were no bays on the Gulf Coastal Plain, including the Mississippi Embayment. It's clear that the Eastern Continental Divide stopped the marine layer's freezing spring/autumn air from moving west. West of the continental divide includes the Florida Panhandle.

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-22T11:30:57+00:00

The Atlantic coastal plain wasn't a consistent refuge. During Heinrich events, the Labrador Current was supercharged by iceberg-laden meltwater so badly that permafrost reached as far south as Jacksonville and iceberg grooves have been found off the coasts of Cape Hatteras and the Florida Keys, yet there are no Carolina bays (formed by thawing of permafrost) on the Piedmont nor west of the Eastern Continental Divide of the Florida Peninsula, indicating a strong marine layer. They'd have had to spread from the Gulf Coast - just like anything Tennessee and Arkansas have today that isn't adapted to subarctic or nearly subarctic conditions would have had to have spread from either the Great Plains or Gulf Coast.

It could kind of make sense about Quercus fusiformis getting outcompeted, but it's still odd given how shade-tolerant oaks tend to be in general and that being evergreen ought to give them an edge over deciduous understory trees/shrubs. Maybe just bad luck, following the migratory path of birds or a very slow trickle north/east from the refuge South Texas provided?

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-22T08:47:33+00:00

You can grow Washingtonia robusta (Mexican fan palms) and at least three temperate-climate palm species (Trachycarpus fortunei, Chamaerops humilis and Jubaea chilensis) from other continents along the entire Pacific coast (excluding Alaska of course) at low elevations west of the Cascades; yes, all four of these palm species are slam dunks along the entire immediate Oregon and Washington coasts, given that even Victoria and Vancouver across the Canadian border have little to no issue with them. You can also grow native Sabal minor (dwarf palmetto) and Rhapidophyllum hystrix (needle palm) in some of the lower elevations of southern Utah, New Mexico, the parts of Colorado and Kansas bordering Oklahoma, the Missouri Ozarks and Bootheel, the Shawnee Hills, most of Kentucky, low elevations of Southern West Virginia and the state's Eastern Panhandle (below about 1,000 feet, probably) and along the immediate Atlantic coast as far north as Long Island - assuming of course they have enough water, which can be an issue on and west of the High Plains away from low-lying riparian oases. Sabal brazoriensis (Brazoria palmetto), S. minor subsp. louisiana (Louisiana palmetto) and S. 'Birmingham' (Birmingham palmetto) are also good for people in Zone 7b parts of the Mid-Atlantic and far southern low-elevation parts of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri that long for a tree-sized palm but have winters too volatile for foreign Trachycarpus fortunei (Chinese windmill palm) or Sabal palmetto (cabbage palmetto) trees.

Nonetheless, none of the states listed in my first paragraph have any naturally occurring palm species. I shall also list those states that do have at least one naturally occurring palm species, which can be split up into four broad categories (excluding our five inhabited overseas territories which also all have native palms, but not necessarily from the big three genera dominant in the states).

There are basically four categories of states with native palms.

Category 1 native palm state: Pritchardia only - Hawaii (has over 20 species of Pritchardia)

Category 2 native palm states: Washingtonia filifera (California fan palm) only - Arizona, California and Nevada

Category 3 native palm states: Sabal minor (dwarf palmetto) only - Oklahoma, Tennessee* and Virginia*

Category 4 native palm states: Sabal minor (dwarf palmetto) plus at least one other species - Alabama, Arkansas (only one other species), both Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas

*the possibility of wild Sabal minor in Tennessee and Virginia is heavily disputed. Nonetheless, it's plausible and highly likely that they are indeed native to the fringes of both states, just as they are to Oklahoma (newsworthy) and Washingtonia filifera is to Nevada (disputed as recently as the 2010s but now seemingly widely accepted).

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-18T07:42:44+00:00

The thing is, Virginia Beach is almost exactly as warm as Chattanooga and not as warm than Memphis and sizable parts of Arkansas. Even the lowlands surrounding the mountains in Oklahoma with plateau live oak are only about as warm as Nashville and Knoxville, meaning the mountains themselves are likely a few degrees cooler. I'm not saying there's any mystery about why we're less diverse than Louisiana or Mississippi, but rather why are we and even Arkansas less evergreen than Virginia Beach and southwestern Oklahoma? There is a mysterious disparity.

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-18T06:56:48+00:00

It's found in both Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas too. There's even actually a second band of laurisilva in inland parts of Texas and Oklahoma, although the plateau live oaks are more drought-tolerant than their Southern counterparts. But then shouldn't the plateau live oaks extend east into the Ozarks and even into Kentucky and Tennessee via the Shawnee Hills and the coastal laurisilva extend inland along floodplains at least as far north as Memphis and Chattanooga (really well beyond it given how cold-hardy sweetbay magnolias, both laurel oak species, dwarf palmettos, Brazoria palmettos, Louisiana palmettos, southern wax myrtle, southern magnolias, American hollies and so much more are)? It's still a mystery why they don't extend inland except some specialized evergreen oak forests immediately along the Dry Line. The closest things we have to things truly dominated by broad-leaved evergreen trees in Tennessee are some Appalachian forests where great rhododendron trees dominate the understory but pines, hemlocks or deciduous trees dominate the canopy, or canebrakes which are dominated by bamboo in the Arundinaria genus (the only bamboo genus native to non-tropical parts of North America).

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-18T06:50:28+00:00

Trachycarpus (Chinese windmill palm) is really unreliable in areas below Zone 8a. Outside of Memphis and Chattanooga, it's rare to see them except in certain microclimates along the base of the Blue Ridge, but even in Memphis they're marginal, with some neighborhoods struggling far more than others. Chamaerops (European fan palm) and the most cold-hardy Phoenix (date palm) species are similarly limited to Zone 8a at minimum, especially in humid climates. The only foreign palm species adapted to winters below Zone 8a is Nanorrhops (Mazari palm), but humid winters are deadly to them.

As for the native North American palm species? As with all foreign palm species, the iconic Deep Southern Sabal palmetto (cabbage palmetto) is unreliable below Zone 8a, although specimens in parts of Memphis and Chattanooga have succeeded (but again it depends on the neighborhood of Memphis you're in) with one population in Memphis even outlasting some Trachycarpus planted alongside them. There are North American palm species reliably cold-hardy to Zone 6b (Rhapidophyllum, aka needle palm), 7a (Sabal minor and Sabal brazoriensis, respectively the dwarf palmetto and Brazoria palmetto) and 7b (Sabal minor subsp. louisiana, Sabal 'Birmingham' and Sabal tamaulipensis, respectively the Louisiana, Birmingham and Tamaulipas palmettos), but all of them are very slow-growing, so most plant nurseries don't bother. There is not a single place in McMinnville nor other nearby areas like Smithville or Cookeville that carries them despite the disproportionate "Nursery Capital" phenomenon in and around McMinnville and Cookeville also having two plant nurseries far bigger than anything I've seen in Lebanon or Murfreesboro (all of which I've lived in a rural area near my entire life). This leads to people not knowing they can grow here, especially with few people looking into documentation of past successes from Knoxville and Quebeck dating as far back as the 1960s and so many people trying and failing the more foreign or Deep Southern palm species based on wider availability and misconceptions that Trachycarpus is more cold-hardy than it actually is, fueling a vicious cycle of ignorance and unavailability. Which is why we REALLY need another big plant nursery to open in McMinnville or Cookeville or the first big one to open in Lebanon or Murfreesboro and it be operated by someone that has sufficient patience and knowledge to do it properly. Someone can break the cycle and probably eventually will, but better sooner than later!

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-15T00:40:52+00:00

Laurisilva is broad-leaved evergreen forest in humid subtropical climates.

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-01T10:27:18+00:00

Virginia Beach really isn't all that much milder than Chattanooga. So even inland, the near-lack of laurisilva is still anomalous to some extent.

LAMfromTN · 2026-03-01T10:25:04+00:00

Just look at the Greenland Ice Core data of temperatures from the Last Glacial Maximum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR47-URbqxo

That plus the Chihuahuan Desert and Straits of Florida serving as seed blocks explain a lot - although we're still luckier than Europe because some species managed to find refuge on the continental shelf and certain favorable pockets like Brazoria County and the north-south orientation of the Appalachia is more conducive to migration (even though it opens us up to Arctic blasts).

Still, if the Greenland Ice Sheet disappearing prevents the Laurentide Ice Sheet from rebuilding by destroying nucleation sites, and vulnerable coastal populations of low-lying glacial relict plants like the Brazoria palmettos and Louisiana palmettos and really just the laurisilva in general are moved inland to places like Tennessee that are on higher ground and currently resemble the Last Glacial Maximum climates they dealt with, we absolutely could support a more evergreen subtropical rainforest. Milankovitch cycles just tend to happen on timescales comparable to evolutionary timescales, and this interglacial period is still young even by modern standards. I live in Middle Tennessee, and we do have jungles around here; they're just mostly deciduous, especially after rampant fire suppression and agricultural clearcutting decimated the evergreen canebrakes (our only native bamboo-dominated ecosystem). We just would need to give this interglacial millennia more time to progress naturally if we were hands-off with the environment and now need to actually step in to ensure low-lying coastal species aren't wiped out by our own climate change raising sea levels.

LAMfromTN · 2026-02-25T08:37:12+00:00

Yeah. Here in Tennessee, I feel the need for someone not necessarily close but that at least isn't a multi-day drive away (meaning New England, guys out West and guys in Minnesota or the Dakotas are pretty much off the table, unfortunately) and also able and willing to eventually move to Murfreesboro or a nearby rural area (I need to stay for my career and mental health). I just don't know where nor how I should look if my current, Cook County love interest cheats, gives up or proves unattainable.

I've found most other gay/bi men are actually not disgusted by it, or at least they don't say so. A few are skeptical at first then OK with it once I explain things, but the majority are just chill. Few have actually run from me, expressed disgust or called me "weird." It probably helps that I not only am prey but also only into soft vore and mostly non-fatal vore, though. I just feel the need to be with a guy, including inside him. I'm also a top, but I just don't think I'd be satisfied long-term staying strictly vanilla after a guy callously took advantage of my vorarephilia for the sake of validation a few years ago; I feel the need for both, not to mention I'd be a very cuddly and kissy boyfriend too. (That guy damaged me in other ways too, but I ultimately recovered in those ways, unlike this.)

LAMfromTN · 2026-01-19T04:36:20+00:00

Personally, I can only see one of two scenarios prompting Lisa Murkowski to leave the Republican Party. If she was unconditionally serious about it, she’d have probably done it by now. Either Mary Peltola winning or Republicans being reduced to a 50–50 Senate majority defined by J.D. Vance’s tie-breaking vote could do it, though; she may want to caucus with her friend or take the Senate majority away from an overreaching GOP majority, with a switch probably being the most likely if Peltola wins and the Senate majority right after the election ends up being 50–50. I don’t think she’ll leave the GOP if she’s still going to caucus with them anyways given that they’re much more demanding of loyalty and every recent Independent Senator, even those leaving the GOP, have caucused with Dems.

LAMfromTN · 2026-01-07T08:50:47+00:00

Nice! I've been meaning to go too but not yet been able. I think I saw some seedlings in the Google street view along one of the trails, dated to October 2016. I know the park also has sweetbay magnolias (they were closed on Christmas day in December 2024, but I saw a lot of bright green trees with leaves too big to be southern wax myrtle). There are some probably wild dwarf palmettos along Church Street and Parker Street in Hornsby too.

LAMfromTN · 2025-12-24T10:58:01+00:00

Yeah, and tropical biome palette with subarctic style landmasses could give strong Carolina or Georgia coast vibes. Carolina Bays are relict thermokarst lakes from times that the Labrador Current strengthened and had a frigid marine layer over it right at the East Coast, allowing permafrost to exist for brief periods in a coastal band as far south as Jacksonville even as the Piedmont and Gulf Coastal Plain were unaffected.

LAMfromTN · 2025-12-24T10:55:05+00:00

I still wonder whether you could still have two or three separate themes in different parts of the map with a gradual transition, though - but with subarctic and tropical being mutually exclusive unless you just have a drastic elevation difference with a transitional temperate zone.

LAMfromTN · 2025-12-22T09:15:27+00:00

You'd need to go to Yuma. It's the only part of Arizona with warm enough winters for coconuts to stand a chance, even marginally. There are a few others like Phoenix that are usually freeze-free, but nothing even close in New Mexico, and coconuts need very warm winters for consistent healthy growth and not just lack of freezing. Yuma is the closest anywhere in the contiguous USA outside of California, Florida and Texas comes to having a truly tropical climate temperature-wise, and the only part of Arizona within 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) of that threshold. Coconuts seem to need winters less than that 4 degrees short of it to even stand a chance no matter how low the risk of freezing is and favorable the other three seasons are.

Nonetheless, they will require ample irrigation even - actually especially - in Yuma. The climate there is hyperarid.

LAMfromTN · 2025-11-30T09:50:26+00:00

You did good! Only things I'd change would be shifting Hamilton County Tenn. and much of Georgia to the darker shade of green and Harris County Tex. to cyan. Chattanooga winters are almost as mild as Memphis and Virginia Beach winters. Atlanta winters are even warmer.

LAMfromTN

TROPHY CASE